May 8th Mountain Home Road Hike:
A small group of us met and then drove from Leavenworth over to the Blewett Pass Highway and took a road off of Mountain Home Road and then took a forest service road up to the top of the hills looking over Leavenworth and out east towards the hills of Cashmere.  It was a warm morning when we started and by the time we made it back it was very warm!!!!  We saw some great mountain flowers in full bloom and the willows were bellowing what looked like cottonwood seeds.  In the mountain breeze it was quite a sight and it was difficult to even breath without getting them up your nose!!!  We walked to the base of a radio tower and a few folks walked clear to the top of the hill that the tower sat on.  This was a three mile walk and we took a road down the other side of the hill that took us directly into the town of Leavenworth.  On that road there is a little private train track system that someone built and uses up in the hills.

Sitting in the shade at the bottom of the hill that went up to the Radio Tower...It was getting pretty warm already!!

Nice soft lavender colored flower

These little flowers stand about 8 inches off of the ground and grew in large clusters.....  some of them had a purple tint to them as well....

These were very fresh blooms!!!  As sharp in color as they come....  in many places there were fields of them....

Old snags have so much personality!!!

Cashmere Mountain

Drury Falls in the distance

Overlooking the town of Leavenworth

Tumwater Canyon Walk:

If you have ever headed down Highway 2 through the Tumwater Canyon you will find this old rusty looking bridge across the river.  The week of May First in fact on May 1st the PLE group started the hike at this bridge and walked up along side the Wenatchee River and enjoyed the sound of the rushing river along with all that nature has to offer from a river habitat including a special sighting of a Osprey nest with a adult bird in it.  It was again a nice bright day for a walk.  This is a great walk if you are ever headed down the canyon, take a break and hike a bit!!!

The Old Rusty walking bridge across the Wenatchee River in the Tumwater Canyon

A feeder stream and it comes down from the snow melt and meets with the  Wenatchee Rier

A nice mix of wild flowers...  one looks like a starfish....  

The ladies along side the river.... 

Adult Osprey in a nest along side the river....  Great Photo Op!!!!

The Old Rusty Bridge with the PLE Gang!!!!  I think we need a gang sign!!!  well maybe not!!!!

Black Bird Island 4-17

Thanks to George and Jimi Wilson I have a few pictures of the trip to the black bird island in Leavenworth.  The mountains and Wenatchee River are showing there Spring personality.  Great day for a walk for sure...  Walking Blackbird Island is a great way to see lots of the local plant and water habitat.  There are some great shore birds and ducks and often times there are deer and a possible black bear on the island.  The bear have come to the island mostly when the fish are coming up the river to spawn in the fall.  There is some great signage that tells a bit of the logging history of the area and how they floated logs down from the Lake Wenatchee area down to the mill in town.  It was a pretty amazing feat of brut strength of both man and water to make this trek.  This is a great walk year round...  and when the fish are running there is a good chance to see the big Chinook as they head towards the hatchery.

Great picture of the group and the Wenatchee River as it makes its way down the canyon

Looking up the Leavenworth Canyon towards Icicle Valley

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Ski Hill in Leavenworth Revisited...

Revisit to Ski Hill in Leavenworth.  What a great day for some walking, talking and just enjoying the nature that exist around us.  The weather was excellent with nice warm sun mixing with the cold of the early morning.  The air was filled with the scent of pine and cottonwood.  We took many of the lower trails searching and finding some new flowers that bloomed since our last visit to Ski Hill several weeks ago.  Of course many that were blooming the last time we were there were now blooming a much bigger way.  Even had a chance to see a couple of quail making their fast paced scurry for food and they wouldn't even give a guy a chance to get their picture taken.  Spring is clearly here but the mornings are still cold and crisp with some folks still reporting 26 degrees....
Some of the explorers were trying their new applications out looking up flowers as we made our trek and that seemed to be a pretty efficient to get a real time reading on the flower we were viewing.  I just need to get better at recording so that I have the name when I get back to update the blog!!!
Great Morning all... look forward to our next trip out...

One of the wooden Ski Jumps on the hill

Not sure what the sign says about our group direction sense!!!!

There are thousands of these balsamroot and mule's-ear flowers on the hill side

Looks like a Western Blue Flax

Maple leaves about to open... it was in the 30's in the early morning and it looks like the outer leaves are trying to protect the inner leaves from the cold!!!!  This particular leaf bundle looked like hands holding the interior leaves...

Great group of explorers for the morning!!!  

Not sure what this little one is???

It was a very wet day for the Plain Lake Explorers adventure to the Icicle Creek Fish hatchery but with the umbrellas up and parkas on, off the group headed.  There is a great series of trails that are used for cross country skiing in the winter and walking in the warmer weather.  The trails find their way through scrub pine and also make their way over to the river which is running very big with the snow melt well on it's way.  It is a great place to let the dogs get a drink of fresh running water and just enjoy the meandering stream as it makes it's way to the hatchery.  The other interesting sites are the Indian Platforms that are used for fishing alongside the hatchery and hanging over the edge of the creek on timber piers.  Soon the Spring Chinook will make their way up the Columbia, the Wenatchee and make that final turn up the Icicle and find their way to their place of birth.  The waters and spillways will come alive with squirming fish.  Back to the walk!!!  Most of the walk is flat and you can do 3 miles fairly easily as we did but you can expand your walk as well.  There were a few flowers out but most were smarter than we were and were in hiding from the downpours and they came in waves.  Our view for the day was you can stay inside all day or face the weather head on and get out...  This was the view going in; after awhile we asked ourselves which is the shorter path back to the cars!!!  We were soaked to the bone...Spring in the mountains at it's best!!!

Walking down the path to Icicle Creek

I wonder it if is going to keep raining!?!

Creek is big with Spring Snow Melt going on

Rain drops keep falling...

Here we all are!!!  Already wet to the bone!!!

Plain Lake Explorers visit Ski Hill Trails in Leavenworth Washington

Yesterday we did the maiden walk of the Plain Lake Explorers and we went into Leavenworth Washington and walked the trails of the Ski Hill area.  It was a great day to view the flowers that just started blooming in the Spring like weather.  We will get better about actually writing down the names of the flowers as they are posted but for this post you will just have to enjoy the pictures.  We had 11 participants and two dogs in the group and we were lucky enough to have a couple of people who knew the actual names of flowers as we explored.  If someone from the group wants to comment and add the names go ahead all I know is that there were a lot of natural flowers blooming.
This group is made up of people from the Lake Wenatchee, Plain, and Leavenworth Washington areas and the plan is to get out and just explore the natural wonders of our area through simple walks/hikes that are readily available for all to partake in.  This blog will be used to share the events through writing and picture form.  Stay tuned for more posts!!!

The "Swinging" Plain Lake Explorers

Trillium about to bloom